In today’s world, everything is changing at breakneck speed. Trends last barely longer than the beat of a butterfly wing. The news of the day is outdated by the time you get to it. And that new iPhone you’re eyeing is already obsolete.

Within this fast-changing environment, family serves as an anchor. In other areas of our lives, we may upgrade to a new model at the earliest hint of trouble. We may leave a job without notice or break a lease with our landlord to pursue an opportunity thousands of miles away. But with family, we’re in it for the long term. We build and nurture these relationships over a lifetime, not weeks. And even the most self-centered among us at least sometimes put family first, whether out of love, duty, or plain old-fashioned guilt.

With this latest global study, Havas Worldwide explores the state of the family at a time when the nuclear unit is an endangered species, marriage is increasingly optional, traditional gender norms are giving way, and children are being raised in a digital world.

FAQ

FAQ: HWW PROSUMER REPORT
The New Dynamics of Family

Why is Havas Worldwide studying this topic?
The family unit is the fundamental cornerstone of societies worldwide, and it’s been subject to a series of significant changes over the past century. The women’s movement brought mothers out of the home and into the work world. And the traditional nuclear family is giving way to a hodgepodge of permutations, including a sharp rise in single parents and single-person households. What we sought to understand through this study is to what extent our feelings about family—and our expectations of them—have changed as a consequence of these new demographics. We also sought to better understand how approaches to childrearing are changing in our new digital era.

What topics are covered in the white paper?
The study explores a number of aspects of the modern family, including structural shifts, family relationships, parenting in the digital age, and the impact of children on consumption.

• Blood First…But There’s Room for More: Despite the so-called breakdown of the nuclear family and the increase in single-person households, our respondents made it clear that family remains essential. Six in 10 global respondents believe that people who remain single and childless are missing out on an important part of life. There are signs that we are broadening our concept of marriage to include not just friends but also pets and, for around 1 in 10, even workmates. Nonetheless, more than three-quarters of the sample cited a blood relative or relative by marriage as the person they feel closest to in the world. And fully half the sample indicated that a sibling is their best friend.

• Shattering Tradition: How are people responding to the radical changes in family structure and life in the home? The biggest worry for most is the move away from the nuclear family, including the sharp rises in single-parent and single-person households. The most divisive issue is the legalization of same-sex marriage, which nearly a third of the sample consider harmful to society and 27 percent consider a good thing. Another 28 percent don’t think it’s having any effect on society, good or bad.

• Man, Marginalized: The study uncovered strong evidence that men are far less pleased than women with the direction in which families and households are moving. Nearly half the males surveyed (46 percent, as compared with 37 percent of women) believe children would be better off if their mothers didn’t work outside the home. And 4 in 10 males (versus 3 in 10 females) believe families work best when the father is the provider/authority figure and the mother is the nurturer/homemaker. Men are also significantly less supportive than women of other shifts taking place, including the adoption of children by single parents and same-sex couples.

• Meet the BE Generation: In the US, the baby boomers are known as the Me Generation—a nod to their reputation for being self-involved. Our current crop of young adults, the millennials, might more aptly be called the BE Generation for their less restrictive approach to living. Compared with the other age groups surveyed, the millennials were more supportive of letting people live with and love whomever they choose, were more apt to support gender-neutral childrearing, and were more convinced of the benefits of exposing children to other people, cultures, and ideas.

• Building Gen Next: Nearly 6 in 10 millennials say they’re intentionally raising their children differently from how they were raised—and, on the whole, they’re pleased with the results. For the most part, millennials and boomers agree on the characteristics one should foster in a child, but there were some interesting distinctions. For example, millennials would prefer to raise children who are creative rather than hardworking, while boomers say the opposite.

• Family in the Digital Age: It’s difficult to think of an aspect of modern life that hasn’t been altered by digital technologies—and that includes childrearing and time spent as a family. The study found serious concerns about the impact of new technologies on children, with a majority actually agreeing that digital technology and the Internet are ruining childhood, and nearly 1 in 3 respondents expressing concern that technology is destroying family life.

• Family@Retail: We also examined the dynamics of spending within the modern household and found that children have a strong or moderate impact on their parents’ purchases in most categories, especially when the parents in question belong to the millennial generation.

Who are Prosumers?
In all of our global surveys, Havas Worldwide uses a proprietary algorithm to break the sample into two groups: mainstream consumers (which, in the case of this study, made up 80 percent of the sample) and Prosumers (20 percent). These breakouts are included in the report and presentation.

Why do Prosumers matter?
These proactive and informed men and women are today’s leading influencers and market drivers. They have always been important, but they have grown even more powerful thanks to their skillful embrace of emerging technologies and, especially, social media.

Havas Worldwide has been tracking Prosumers for more than a decade and in that time has interviewed thousands of them. They are important to us because, beyond their own economic impact, they influence the brand choices and behaviors of others. Simply put, what Prosumers are doing today, mainstream consumers are likely to be doing six to 18 months from now. Learn more about Prosumers and our Prosumer studies at http://www.havasworldwide.com/prosumer-report and by following us on Twitter (@prosumer_report).

Who created the study?
Prosumer Reports is a series of thought leadership publications by Havas Worldwide—part of a global initiative to share information and insights, including our own proprietary research, across the Havas Worldwide network of agencies and client companies.

Havas Worldwide is a leading integrated marketing communications agency and was the first to be named Global Agency of the Year by both Advertising Age and Campaign in the same year. The Havas Worldwide network is made up of 11,000 employees in 316 offices in 120 cities and 75 countries, and provides advertising, marketing, corporate communications, and digital and social media solutions to some of the largest global brands. Headquartered in New York, Havas Worldwide is the largest unit of the Havas group, a world leader in communications (Euronext Paris SA: HAV.PA).

How was the study fielded?
In October/November 2014, Havas Worldwide partnered with Market Probe International to survey 6,767 men and women aged 18+ in 20 countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The survey sample was made up of 20 percent leading-edge Prosumers and 80 percent mainstream consumers. For the purposes of this report, we have characterized respondents aged 18‒34 as millennials and those aged 55+ as baby boomers.

Where can I get additional findings?
Complete findings of this report—including data for each market surveyed—are available to employees and clients of Havas Worldwide by contacting heather.ball@havasww.com. Key findings from our most recent studies, along with select data, are available to the public on this site.

I want to learn more about how Havas Worldwide can help my brand.Maria Garrido
Global Chief Insights & Analytics Officer
Havas Group
E maria.garrido@havasmg.com

I am a member of the media. How can I get more information?Yvonne Bond
Chief Network Initiatives and Communications Officer
Havas Group
M+1 646 643 8824
E yvonne.bond@havasww.com

Study Highlights

STUDY HIGHLIGHTS: HWW PROSUMER REPORT
The New Dynamics of Family
In today’s world, everything is changing at breakneck speed. Trends last barely longer than the beat of a butterfly wing. The news of the day is outdated by the time you get to it. And that new iPhone you’re eyeing is already obsolete.
Within this fast-changing environment, family serves as an anchor. In other areas of our lives, we may upgrade to a new model at the earliest hint of trouble. We may leave a job without notice or break a lease with our landlord to pursue an opportunity thousands of miles away. But with family, we’re in it for the long term. We build and nurture these relationships over a lifetime, not weeks. And even the most self-centered among us at least sometimes put family first, whether out of love, duty, or plain old-fashioned guilt.

With this latest global study, Havas Worldwide explores the state of the family at a time when the nuclear unit is an endangered species, marriage is increasingly optional, traditional gender norms are giving way, and children are being raised in a digital world.

Highlights of the study include:

1. This ain’t your grandpa’s family…: Respondents expressed concern about a number of the radical changes taking place within the family structure, particularly the sharp increase in single-parent and single-person households around the globe. The most divisive issue: the legalization of same-sex marriage, which nearly a third of the sample consider harmful to society while a quarter believe it to be a good thing.

2. The marginalization of men: Nearly half the males surveyed (46 percent, as compared with 37 percent of women) believe children would be better off if their mothers didn’t work outside the home. And 4 in 10 males believe families work best when the father is the “provider,” while only a quarter disagree. On the whole, the males we surveyed are far less comfortable than the females with the changing nature of what constitutes a “family.”

3. Building Gen Next: Nearly 6 in 10 millennials say they’re intentionally raising their children differently from how they were raised—and most think they’re better parents than their own parents were. Take that, boomers!

4. Family in the digital age: The study found serious concerns about the impact of new technologies on children, with a majority agreeing that digital technology and the Internet are ruining childhood, and nearly 1 in 3 respondents expressing concern that technology is destroying family life.

5. Millennials “meh” on marriage: A third of millennials believe marriage will eventually be obsolete—not all that surprising at a time when so many people are putting off matrimony or avoiding it altogether. Around 4 in 10 millennials consider marriage less important now that women can earn their own incomes, and a solid majority (56 percent) say it’s fine for a couple to live together and have children without being legally wed.

6. The TV family is off the mark: Whereas popular culture in much of the developed world loves to highlight the dysfunctional family, our study shows that the positives far outweigh the negatives for most people. Around three-quarters of our global sample said their family is a source of joy and nearly two-thirds said it’s a source of comfort, while just 15 percent said it’s a source of stress.

7. Prosumers are more family focused: By every measure, leading-edge Prosumers showed themselves to be more invested in family. For instance, 89 percent of Prosumers profess a deep respect for their parents, compared with 80 percent of the mainstream. Eighty-five percent of Prosumers said they have a loving relationship with their families, compared with 76 percent of the mainstream. And 6 in 10 Prosumers claim a sibling as their best friend, compared with just half of the mainstream.

8. A pushback against gender blending: Around half of the men surveyed (and 4 in 10 women) worry that boys are becoming less masculine and girls, less feminine. In keeping with those concerns, a majority of men believe that boys and girls should be raised according to their gender (different clothes, toys, activities, etc.) rather than in a more gender-neutral environment. Women disagree sharply on this, with 63 percent saying children should be raised in as gender-neutral a way as possible.

9. Different cultures, different approaches: For all the globalization the world has undergone in recent years, there were significant differences between countries on many of our questions pertaining to childrearing. As an example, only 56 percent of respondents in France believe it’s important to love their children unconditionally, compared with more than 9 in 10 respondents in Australia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Portugal, and the US. And only half of Indonesian respondents believe it’s important to give children the freedom to make mistakes, compared with 9 in 10 or more in Australia, Mexico, the UK, and the US.

10. Is it too late to trade?: Family has been pretty good to millennials. Three-quarters say their families are a source of joy, while only 7 percent say they’re a source of disappointment. Nevertheless, if given the choice, more than 1 in 5 millennials (22 percent) would go back in time and be born into a different family. Our guess: That new gene pool would come complete with a whopping inheritance.

To learn more about the study and to download the full report, please visit www.havasworldwide.com/prosumer-report.

And follow us on Twitter @prosumer_report.

About the Study
In October/November 2014, Havas Worldwide partnered with Market Probe International to survey 6,767 people aged 18+ in 20 countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The survey sample was made up of 20 percent leading-edge Prosumers and 80 percent mainstream consumers.